SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth Pirates clinched their second consecutive trip to the NCAA Division III volleyball tournament with a 25-15, 25-15, 25-22 win over visiting Linfield on Saturday night.

Whitworth improved to 18-6 overall and 12-2 in the Northwest Conference and holds a two-game lead over second-place Pacific Lutheran with two games left to play.  Because the Pirates hold the tiebreaker by virtue of a season sweep of the Lutes, Whitworth has clinched the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament for the second season in a row.  It will be the Bucs' sixth all-time appearance.

It was not the crispest performance by either team.  Whitworth hit only .083 and the Wildcats (10-13 overall, 7-7 NWC) struggled to a -.110 team hitting percentage.

"We hung in there as a team tonight," said Whitworth head coach Kati Bodecker.  "When a point did not go our way we did a good job moving forward to the next play.  The girls were determined and did not let things get in the way of achieving their goal tonight."

Nicole Leonard had five kills in the first set as Whitworth jumped to a 14-3 lead.  Linfield scored three of its first four points on Pirate service errors.  The Wildcats got within 17-9 after consecutive Whitworth attack errors, but would get no closer as a Linfield attack error ended the frame. 

The second set started off much closer.  Molly McTaggart's service ace pulled Linfield into a 10-10 tie.  But Whitworth then went on an 8-1 run to take control.  Brenna Bruil had a pair of kills during that run and finished with four kills in the set.  Cassandra Mendoza ended it for Whitworth with a kill.

The final set stayed close until the end.  The teams traded leads several times until Caiti Berrie's kill gave Linfield a 19-18 lead.  Back-to-back blocks by the Pirates gave Whitworth the lead back and they would not relinquish it again.  With the final set tied 22-22, the Bucs scored three straight points to win the match.  Mendoza's final kill ended it for Whitworth.

Leonard finished with 11 kills and Mendoza had nine for the Pirates.  Mallorie Schoesler and Elizabeth Ginley combined for 27 of the team's 58 digs and Maddye Dinsmore finished with 32 assists. 

Dinsmore now has 3,743 assists in her career and is six short of breaking the Pirate career record of 3,748 set by Nicole Weedman from 1999-2002.

Linfield finished with only 16 kills as a team in the match.  Barrie and McTaggart had four apiece to lead their team.  Courtney Uyeda had a match-high 17 digs.

Whitworth needs one more win to clinch an outright conference title.  The Pirates finish the season at Willamette (Friday) and Lewis & Clark (Saturday) next weekend.